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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22363930">We Walk in Beauty</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyofstardvst/pseuds/ladyofstardvst'>ladyofstardvst</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Deadly Class (Comics), Deadly Class (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Eventual Fluff, Light Angst, Surprise! - Freeform</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 10:47:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,414</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22363930</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyofstardvst/pseuds/ladyofstardvst</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In which you and Lex have to pretend date when acquiring explosives for the raid on Chester's.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Lex Miller &amp; You, lex miller x you</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>We Walk in Beauty</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>requested via tumblr! im still a little DC rusty, oops. xo</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The night was young, and it was velvety soft, even as tension dripped into the cracks.</p>
<p>It was the white-hot explosive kind that left your skin burning, your lungs aching for a fresh breath. Bright strobe lights and live music so loud it threatened to engulf you, mind, body and soul. It was the kind masquerading as neon green poison, the act of allowing yourself to believe that tonight would be anything other than normal, or spontaneous, or completed without a hitch.</p>
<p>You had counted down the days to the night of the Adolescents’ show, had refused with steel in your voice to bail on Billy when everyone else was hellbent on hunting down explosives for the raid on Chester’s sanctuary. Why you all had to go with Lex was beyond you – everyone knew Lex’s contacts were sketchy at best, and Captain Jack had a reputation, after all. It was the kind that made you cringe, but not cower – though it was really no surprise to <em>you</em> that Lex found a way into his good graces.</p>
<p>If Jack even <em>had</em> good graces.</p>
<p>You hadn’t cared, regardless, because when you lost yourself in the crowd, you felt at home. The bassline, the roar of the drums was so loud you felt it become one with your heartbeat. Felt the adrenaline race thick and unparalleled through your veins, your bones, your breath, felt the music wash over you as you became a single pulsing entity with everyone else in the venue. Everything about King’s Dominion, your life, your obligations, it all melted away in the heat of the moment. This was pure undiluted joy, and you had almost forgotten what that felt like.</p>
<p>And then there was a firm tug on your wrist, and you were being pulled through the press of bodies to the edge of the crowd, a corner that crawled with shadows. It was the farthest away from where you wanted to be, and even then, Lex had to close all distance between you to make sure you heard him over the raging scene in the background. His eyes were everywhere other than you, when he leaned close to your ear.</p>
<p>“You have to come with me,” he wasn’t asking, but he knew better than to demand.</p>
<p>His breath caressed your skin, and a shiver trickled down your spine, stuffy venue be damned.</p>
<p>There was no way in hell you were leaving.</p>
<p>“No,” you answered, short and sweet.</p>
<p>Lex pulled away to look at you, eyes questioning. The smokey haze from the pyro and other various activities bathed him in an ominous, heavenly glow when the stage-lights glowed honey gold and washed over your corner every few seconds. You had to look away, had to remind yourself to breathe because this was not the time to think about how <em>good</em> he looked – gilded in light and leather and turmoil.</p>
<p>“What the bloody hell do you mean <em>no</em>?”</p>
<p>“Exactly what I said,” your lips twinged into a smile when the song melted into another you loved. “I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, Lex, you <em>know</em> that -”</p>
<p>“You don’t get it,” he yelled over the swell of the chorus, voices that sang along. “If I have someone <em>with me</em> . . . let’s say <span>someone</span><em> easy on the eyes</em> – Jack will think <span>twice</span> about bashing my brains in.”</p>
<p>If your eyes could have rolled into the back of your head permanently, they would have.</p>
<p>But then -</p>
<p>“Did you really just say ‘<em>easy on the eyes</em>’?”</p>
<p>A laugh spilled from your lips, eyes alight, and Lex was telling you to shut up.</p>
<p>With one last longing look back at the stage, you took his hand and pulled him out into the freedom of the chilled December air.</p>
<p>“I knew you didn’t want to see me die,” he broke the silence after a block or two, voice triumphant and very much pleased with himself.</p>
<p>“I didn’t want to be held accountable for your untimely death,” you countered, gave him a shove off the sidewalk. “Which you probably deserve, if you need a <em>security detail</em>.”</p>
<p>Lex allowed himself to laugh at your tasteless joke, allowed a glance that lingered on you when you weren’t looking. He was filled with regret almost immediately, with either asking you along, or just looking at you, he wasn’t sure; the sight of you illuminated in starlight, looking so weightless and full of life – it made his heart come alive, his breath hitched and he knew he had to tell you the most important thing.</p>
<p>He knew you would probably leave.</p>
<p>“There’s one more thing.”</p>
<p>And without missing a breath, “Don’t tell me you need money too, Lex, <em>honestly</em> -”</p>
<p>Every time you said his name, he expected to stop breathing, because coming from <em>you</em>, your voice, your lips – his name sounded like poetry. You would have made Byron himself weep from inadequacy.</p>
<p>“<em>What</em>? No. <em>No</em> – it’s not -” he tapered off, wondering how to spin this so you wouldn’t leave him to the wolves. That was something you would never do, but he couldn’t know that, not yet. “It’s just, Jack -”</p>
<p>Rarely, had you witnessed Lex so unsure, so out of sorts. An unsettling feeling began to creep into your soul, wrap around your spine and curl in the pit of your stomach. A sleeping guard dog on the verge of biting the hand that feeds.</p>
<p>You stopped on the sidewalk, and Lex stopped beside you.</p>
<p>“Just spit it out,” you said, tone quiet and curious. There was a question you’d been asking yourself, all these weeks of playing this cat-and-mouse game with Lex – a question you were scared to act on, when things seemed to have shifted past the solid lines of friendship, <em>do not cross</em>. Things were grey now, murky and opaque at worst, a blurry mess at best. You decided, in that moment, it was time to earn some answers. “You can tell me anything, you know.”</p>
<p>There was a beat of silence, a second or three that felt like eons and eons and eons.</p>
<p>“Right,” he said at last, fidgeting with the studded bands on his wrists. He watched the traffic rush past on the street, wispy cotton clouds drift in front of the crescent moon above, anywhere but you – and the terrifying prospect of the truth. “We made a bet awhile ago – that seedy prick doesn’t think I could find someone to <em>date</em> outside of the sack, and I uh – I told him he was full of <em>shit</em>.”</p>
<p>“Oh my god.”</p>
<p>“Part of the deal for the explosives,” Lex ignored your statement, kept pushing forward. <em>Had</em> to keep pushing forward. “I have to bring them with me so he <span>knows</span> I’m not taking the piss out of him.”</p>
<p>“Oh my <em>god</em>,” you stared at him narrow eyed, slack jawed, heart twisting and twisting and <em>twisting</em>. “He doesn’t want to beat the shit out of you, you just want to win a <em>bet</em>?”</p>
<p>“Good, you’re with me then.”</p>
<p>You had half a mind to walk away, your anger leaving him a blur in your retreat.</p>
<p>But yet -</p>
<p>It might be nice, to pretend for a little while.</p>
<p>“You didn’t – you didn’t specify <em>me</em>, though, did you?”</p>
<p>A bitter breeze kicked up in that burning, white-hot explosive pause. You hadn’t walked away – though there was still time for that – and Lex hadn’t thought of what to say past admitting the truth. He wanted to look away from you – would have, on any other day, any other conversation – but there was something <em>different</em> about tonight. Something electric, heartache turning into something tangible. Something that could be <em>real</em>, maybe, if you let yourselves crawl out of the shadows and lived selfishly, even just for one night.</p>
<p>“No,” he answered truthfully, eyes glued to the – was that hope, he saw in your eyes? “He doesn’t know about you.”</p>
<p>A grin of your own was your answer, and you decided to throw caution to the wind when you watched Lex’s expression shift from barricaded beyond belief, to open, honest, <em>real</em>. You hummed, traced the zipper, the collar, followed the patters of the studs on his prized leather jacket.</p>
<p>He was frozen under your touch, felt the heat from your fingertips sear his skin despite the winter cold.</p>
<p>“Maybe we should change that then,” you said simply, fingers falling down to lace with his own. “And if you’re lucky, I’ll even let you kiss me.”</p>
<p>Lex grinned back at you, all devilish and hopeful and divine.</p>
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